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Ah now I understand what you folks are saying - a Mae West is a life vest. NEVER heard that before in my life.
Mae West for cake: well, it was designed with her in mind. The yellow frosting (blond hair), white cake (for a look of purity) and chocolate covered (for the sinful side).
It is also used as a nickname for French people in Québec. On their work breaks French people will most often have "un Mae West pi un Pepsi" (a Mae West and a Pepsi). We were the biggest consumers of both these items in Canada for the longest time. So both these terms are used to describe French Québecers.
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it typically creates a one-word slang term out of a two-word phrase.
Well, not quite. The canonical process starts with a single word from which is derived a two word phrase (or two words linked with an AND) in which the second word rhymes with the one word being replaced. Then the second word of the two word phrase is dropped and the first word is used exclusively*. Example: Peaches and Cream for dream -- Oy 'ad the stryngest peaches last noight. This would result in a life vest being called a Mae. One problem here would be that I don't think the Brits would be likely to call the device in question a vest.
*This is not always the case; sometimes the whole two word phrase is used. This *would allow for the phrase Mae West to be used for vest, but see my objection above regarding use of the word vest to describe the life jacket. I also don't think that Cockney rhyming slang was a great source of military slang. But I could be wrong. I'm sure we have plenty of folks who can correct me.
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I don’t think that’s quite accurate, Keiva – I can think of plenty of examples of cockney that work the other way about, such as “apples and pears” for ‘stairs’. Like most argots, the key is to draw a line between the insiders and the outsiders. I am inclined to think you have hit the nail right on the head, sunny Gym – the original term would have been something quite pompous and officious like inflatable vest for which the subs titution of “Mae West” would have been a natural inflation.  To put it in context you have only to imagine the class-ridden system of England in that time: if the educated officers introduced new equipment with a fancy name, it would be imperative for the ranks to make it their own by a linguistic twist. But Rhuby is more expert on CRS than I – come on in, Rhuby, the water’s quite buoyant!
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mav: IMHO, you're right, and I was mistaken, regarding the general structure of cockney rhyming slang. Thanks.
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Since this thread already has 146 posts(with mine), I invite everyone, free of charge, to move the discussion to Mae West and Buoyancy thread. See you there!
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To bring a few threads together on Cockney Rhyming slang. Growing up after WWII I knew that a Mae West was a life jacket, long before I knew who Mae West was, and even longer before I realised why. Life vests are invariably known as Life Jackets in UK so we are unlikely to have made the rhyming connection, though someone else might have. I agree with the bosom theory, though if they were officially known as Life Vests in the forces, then Mav could still be correct. On "taters in the mould" (reverting to UK spelling, I used a US dictionary looking up the meanings of mold/mould last time), my introduction to that and many other CRS phrases was via my father and grandfather, about 45 years ago. They were both from the East End of London, though not born within the sound of Bow Bells. And "taters in the mould" is listed in my 1969 CRS dictionary and on many Googled sites. Yoda is right that most CRS phrases have a natural rythmic feel though there are other examples of long and awkward phrases (tumble (down the sink)=drink) and of single words (Aris(totle)=bottle). Since the phrases are usually shortened, the original awkwardness doesn't matter that much. But many of the phrases sound contrived to me anyway. (Tumble down the sink, grumble and grunt yes, it's rude,..) You may be interested in this site: http://www.surflondon.co.uk/HTML/sections.php3?op=viewarticle&artid=211 which has other London slang as well. They (and other sites) mention multilevel CRS in which the original CRS word gets rerhymed. So Arse => Bottle and Glass => Bottle =>Aristotle => Aris => April in Paris => April. I have not heard that one in real life but I have heard Bottle => Aristotle => Aris => Plaster of Paris => Plaster (for drink) and could that be the derivation of Plastered for drunk? There are many CRS phrases which are in common use in UK English, most people are unaware of the origins.
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could that be the derivation of Plastered for drunk?
I like the idea Rod - we could play Six Degrees of CRS Separation!
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